Editorial

Abstract

It is widely thought that the state of public understanding of science in the United States, and indeed throughout much of the industrialized world, is in need of fundamental reexamination…. Regardless of its philosophical soundness, the old model of value-free science unlocking the secrets and powers of nature for man's benefit has had profound social and intellectual consequences. Today, however, there is growing resistance to this model; in various quarters, allegiance is shifting to another image, one that projects science as almost mindlessly giving virtually uncontrolled powers over nature and human life to unprepared people…. We seem to be in a crisis of reason in which commitment to rational knowledge as a source of human freedom is being seriously challenged.